What Is The Deal With All The Highly Educated & Professionals Becoming RNs?

Nurses General Nursing

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So I pretty much always have nursing students with me. I have senior BSN students who are doing a critical care class (six 12 hours shifts), ADN students from 2 different programs doing their preceptorships (eight 12 hour shifts), ABSN students doing clinical (six 12 hour shifts), and direct entry MSN students who shadow me for a shift. In addition I come into contact with a variety of other students who are being taught by my RN co-workers. My hospital also has a "student nurse technician" program where they hire nursing students to do CNA type work. So I regularly talk to 5-10 nursing students a week and nearly always have a student with me each shift.

What I am so shocked about is the level of education of these students who are in nursing school. I can't even remember the last time I had a ADN student who didn't already have a bachelors degree with me. Of course the MSN and ABSN students already have bachelors degrees, but what is surprising to me is that so many are already professionals in others areas. I had a student who already has a bachelors and masters in architecture and worked for a well known local firm, I have had lawyers, police officers, scads of teachers, and a few engineers among others. Even a guy who is an MD in Russia.

Why do all of these people want to be nurses? Have any of you experienced this?

Back when I was in nursing school there were plenty of 2nd career types in my class but they tended to be factory workers, truck drivers, farmers, military vets who were moving up to become RNs. A few had bachelors degrees but not like now.

I actually find it frightening and a little sad. Frightening cause I suspect this is a symptom of a very bad economy and terrible job market. Sad cause I know so many of the will struggle to find work after making huge sacrifices to get through nursing school.

Some of them are SHOCKED when I tell them it's a tough job market out there for RNs and they will have to work hard and keep on their toes to find any job. Some simply refuse to believe me (nearly all the direct entry MSN students, ironic since they will struggle in our local market more than the others). Others already have this figured out and are already bitter about it.

Specializes in L&D.

I am a new RN. I have a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and am a former case worker for the state who worked with child protection(foster care/investigations). I chose to quit my job and go into nursing b/c 1)It's what I ALWAYS wanted to do and 2)although I had a stable job, as case workers we were overworked, little pay for what we were doing, and although I still found it rewarding, I wanted to do something different. I still have my foot in the door with CPS though as I do some volunteer work through CASA. There were 2 guys in my class with former biology degrees, who had tried for med school and didn't make it...

So I pretty much always have nursing students with me. I have senior BSN students who are doing a critical care class (six 12 hours shifts), ADN students from 2 different programs doing their preceptorships (eight 12 hour shifts), ABSN students doing clinical (six 12 hour shifts), and direct entry MSN students who shadow me for a shift. In addition I come into contact with a variety of other students who are being taught by my RN co-workers. My hospital also has a "student nurse technician" program where they hire nursing students to do CNA type work. So I regularly talk to 5-10 nursing students a week and nearly always have a student with me each shift.

What I am so shocked about is the level of education of these students who are in nursing school. I can't even remember the last time I had a ADN student who didn't already have a bachelors degree with me. Of course the MSN and ABSN students already have bachelors degrees, but what is surprising to me is that so many are already professionals in others areas. I had a student who already has a bachelors and masters in architecture and worked for a well known local firm, I have had lawyers, police officers, scads of teachers, and a few engineers among others. Even a guy who is an MD in Russia.

Why do all of these people want to be nurses? Have any of you experienced this?

Back when I was in nursing school there were plenty of 2nd career types in my class but they tended to be factory workers, truck drivers, farmers, military vets who were moving up to become RNs. A few had bachelors degrees but not like now.

I actually find it frightening and a little sad. Frightening cause I suspect this is a symptom of a very bad economy and terrible job market. Sad cause I know so many of the will struggle to find work after making huge sacrifices to get through nursing school.

Some of them are SHOCKED when I tell them it's a tough job market out there for RNs and they will have to work hard and keep on their toes to find any job. Some simply refuse to believe me (nearly all the direct entry MSN students, ironic since they will struggle in our local market more than the others). Others already have this figured out and are already bitter about it.

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Well, I am a second career RN....was a SW for state govt for several years before going to nursing school. A lot of you may not believe this.....but some jobs actually suck worse than nursing!!! For me, that SW position was killing me. I love nursing. LOVE IT! I was mature enough to know exactly what I wanted going into it, and exactly what I did not want. I choose not to work nights, maneuver super large people, or deal with lots of the stuff I consider "yucky". Working in an ASC and now outpatient endoscopy is just about as perfect as any job could be!!

There are many of us who are thoughtful, mature, introspective, well educated and go in to nursing as a second career simply because we WANT to! Love my job!

Also, although RNs will never be super-wealthy- there really should be no whining about the pay. Have you taken a look at what many agencies (not hospitals) pay MSWs or CADCs? Master's Degree and $16 per hour?? And that work is HARD.

Those of you who hate nursing so much or think it is too hard and not worth the $ should do what so many of us 2nd "careerers" have done....jump ship, hit the books and go do what you truly love. It is totally worth it!

Cheers!

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Specializes in PICU.
Well, I am a second career RN....was a SW for state govt for several years before going to nursing school. A lot of you may not believe this.....but some jobs actually suck worse than nursing!!! For me, that SW position was killing me. I love nursing. LOVE IT! I was mature enough to know exactly what I wanted going into it, and exactly what I did not want. I choose not to work nights, maneuver super large people, or deal with lots of the stuff I consider "yucky". Working in an ASC and now outpatient endoscopy is just about as perfect as any job could be!!

There are many of us who are thoughtful, mature, introspective, well educated and go in to nursing as a second career simply because we WANT to! Love my job!

Also, although RNs will never be super-wealthy- there really should be no whining about the pay. Have you taken a look at what many agencies (not hospitals) pay MSWs or CADCs? Master's Degree and $16 per hour?? And that work is HARD.

Those of you who hate nursing so much or think it is too hard and not worth the $ should do what so many of us 2nd "careerers" have done....jump ship, hit the books and go do what you truly love. It is totally worth it!

Cheers!

I agree with u 100%!!!

I have a very good government job that I will be giving up for nursing school. Not everything is about money. If it were, I would stay at my desk job and make what RN's already make in pay. But, I do not like my job. It's not what I desire to do, I desire to be a nurse, it's not about the money.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Neuro/Oncology floor nursing..
Oh and I have no idea how people can do this job for the money. Because let me tell you the $20/hour I was making in LTC being a nurse for 34 patients was not keeping me there. It's the fact that I love my patients and I have been in this field since I was 19. It's the only job I know I can do well but that doesn't mean I don't want to bang my head on my med cart everyday like people in cubicles do.

I agree with you...if someone is really looking to go into a career for job security and the money..become a plumber...seriously. And the paycheck I get now after having my BSN and working in the same hospital for six years(and I had years of experience when they hired me) is barely half of what I used to make sitting on my rear, answering phones and pushing some paper. My best friend thinks I am an idiot for not staying with my first job because of the paycheck...she just doesn't get that nursing was NOT my fallback career and I am obviously not in it for the money. I am fortunate enough that I didn't have to take out student loans for any of my schooling. The VA(Veterans Affairs) paid for all of my education since my father(a Vietnam vet, died from cancer due to agent orange exposure). Also I changed my careers nearly a decade ago before the economy turned to sludge. A close friend of mine graduated months ago and is really struggling to find a job in her field(she is currently working at Starbucks to pay off her student loans).

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Eh, it's KIND OF about the money. It's not why I'm going into nursing, no, but I still couldn't pursue nursing without the assurance that it's going to provide me with a decent paycheck for my family. I find it very personally rewarding being a CNA, and I think it'll only be better as a nurse.

I swapped from using my accounting degree to going back to nursing school, and so far I don't regret it. I study and work every minute of every day, it feels like, and it is so difficult. It's worth it though.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Interesting to hear all the comments about DE MSN students/grads!

I do some lecturing for a mix of DE and traditional

MSN students at my alma mater. The data from the DE students who graduated last year was 97% employment at 9-months out from graduation with a median salary of just about 90k. The data at graduation for the 2013 class was 34% having accepted offers at time of graduation (no data on salary for them).

*** The DE MSN students who shadow me are not APN students. The will graduate as entry level RNs the same as ADN and BSN grads. It that the kind of program you are refering to above? Those are pretty good numbers and that makes me ask are those regular bedside staff nursing jobs?

Localy there is a strong anti DE MSN bias. Those grads will face a harder job market than the ADN and BSN grads. It's a shame but the universities did it to them.

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Specializes in surgical, geriatrics.
It's the fact that people who are crossing over to nursing from another field have NO idea what it's truly like. It's like a unicorn to them and then they really find out it can sorta be like a regular old pony. It always makes me scratch my head when people in nursing programs talk about " the shortage". There is a job shortage people, it's the other way around! If your in your 40's/50's making a good living with a different degree, stay there because your better off.

I couldn't agree more--going into nursing without ever having spent any real significant time in a unit, it just seems like a hefty investment into something that you might not like.

No one in my program talks about shortages (they're pretty up front about the risk) but I have heard some bad information--like telling us we'll never put in ivs or clean up poop because we're BSN nurses. PLEASE - nurses do those things whether they're BSN or ADN, if you sit around waiting for someone else to do it you will be waiting a long time! Maybe I'm jaded but I spent enough time as a CNA to know that nurses do everything, it's not just hand holding and yelling at PCAs whenever someone poops ;)

It seems like a lot of the second career folks I've encountered are split between people who want to do L&D and psych. No one seems the slightest bit interested in floor nursing, just getting to the MSN level.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

It just seems terrably inefficient to double educate so many people. What kind of society are we creating that such a large number of people must be educated TWICE to have a middel class lifestyle.

On seperate note. Nurses pay should NOT be compaired to other fields with far less responsibiliety. Nurses wages have been declining for a number of years now. If you want to compair our wages it needs to be compaired to an occupation with a similar level of responsibiliety. Nurses wages are LOW relitive to the level of responsibiliety we have.

Meanwhile nurses are trying to get out of bedside nursing and change careers into NPs, CRNAs, etc. Not exactly out of nursing but pretty much out of nursing.

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Uou are only 21.. dont know how you cant think 20 years ahead of you..You have a lot to learn!

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Believe it or not, no matter what people say, money and job security matter in nursing. You know sometimes when you try to find good intentions in your actions or to rationalize your decisions, you can trick your mind into thinking: "I am truly doing it bc I wanna help people". But the naked truth is at the end of the day money matters. "Well if it's not for the pay, I'm not staying". I have seen so many people like that in nursing school and now in the real world it's worse. And sometimes I hate myself too that I do let the big M come into equation whenever I make any decision with my nursing career. And highly educated and experienced people who might not like to take risks in life anymore (ironically that we are all intelligent ppl here) would fall for this "nursing is stable career" BS.

And you know what is a complication of this in our current economy: You got some very unsatisfied and bitter educated people who are so entitled and just realize they could not get the "juice" or "financial promises" of nursing. Then they become office bullies, gossips, backstabbers, calluses, heartless nurses, etc... I am from a generic BSN and I am working with 2 RNs who went to an accelerated program bc they already had a bachelor. So I assume they feel it harder than me in term of "getting tricked" into nursing. They make my working day really unpleasant because they complain and act vicious "professionally" at work on a daily basis. It is bc we all have a low-salary non-traditional nursing positions at an outpatient private practice. While I attempt at least to find the reasons to enjoy this job even tho it was not my first choice, the others feel like hell everyday bc they feel like they are stuck here. I don't know if they think they are more educated and "high-class" workers bc they have double Bachelors or what; they are really entitled, "we are nurses, we don't do this or that". They act really mean to MAs n front desk receptionists. I know it's horrible but sometimes I feel like life serves them right that they could not get a job in the hospital like they want.

But yeah I shouldn't criticize others when I am not doing good myself either. My original dream for nursing was I had a fixed schedule of three 12s shifts in a row/week in the ICU, where I can feel smart and intellectually challenged. So the rest 4 days off I pursue my true passion in Art. And of course I would get pay well and make significant impacts on people's life too. Nursing was awesome like that in my mind.;I was naive in my freshman year and thought that all it'd take is to get in nursing school with high GPA. So I worked for almost perfect GPA to get into nursing school. Then when I got into nursing school, hearing all about the hardship of working as a nurse and the reality of "First semester's foundation clinical". Instead of getting the heck out at the beginning, I endured more and jumped more hoops for my ICU pseudo-dream: my program was pretty tough and I spent more time and money to get externships in dursing Summer, you know the types of clinical that you have to pay for to be nurses' slave. Then of course the NCLEX and blah blah blah. What did I get out of it? 4 months of endless applications and unemployment + ended up at a private practice where the Dr. Boss who wants to trade my blood for his money and my miserable co-workers who like to drag ppl down with them. Can't get out bc I have owed so much to pursue this pseudo-dream. Would all of my hard works ever get paid off? I would never work in the ICU now let alone so much of having any time to do Art on the side.

If I could turn back time, I would rather just do Art for all the joy and happiness. Then now yes I would end up with a very low page job or no job at all, same situation, but you know what at least I have done what I truly love at heart and will be surrounded with very passionate people who are brave enough to be true to themselves. Really, nurses, all I hear is complaints, abuse, burn-out, dramas, mistreats. Only few very old nurses once in a while I found are truly amazing and inspirational, the rest of nursing, a whole mess of whining. Not at the points like my friends who cry after their shifts everyday but I am indeed depressed and cynical. The next time I hear ppl talk about how nurses have it easy and nursing shortage, I might go postal....

Please please, do others or at least yourself a favor, do not enter nursing as your second career because it is so not worth it for the money or for anything at all. Period. I am a living proof of it. And yes, others have told me the exact same words before and I did not believe them and so do you my friends, victims of the "nursing shortage" black hole.

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It just seems terrably inefficient to double educate so many people. What kind of society are we creating that such a large number of people must be educated TWICE to have a middel class lifestyle.

On seperate note. Nurses pay should NOT be compaired to other fields with far less responsibiliety. Nurses wages have been declining for a number of years now. If you want to compair our wages it needs to be compaired to an occupation with a similar level of responsibiliety. Nurses wages are LOW relitive to the level of responsibiliety we have.

Meanwhile nurses are trying to get out of bedside nursing and change careers into NPs, CRNAs, etc. Not exactly out of nursing but pretty much out of nursing.

Well, it just goes to show there are way too many immaterial liberal arts degrees out there. Even a MBA is of dubious value unless backed with years of practical experience. I think higher education in this country should be more vocational in nature. Why peruse a degree that doesn't result in licensure in a specific career. Medical school, nursing school, law school all make more sense than a liberal arts degree or political science degree. Not saying there's no place for such degrees, just not so many of them.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I have heard some bad information--like telling us we'll never put in ivs or clean up poop because we're BSN nurses. PLEASE - nurses do those things whether they're BSN or ADN,

*** Holly cow! Please tell me that your instructors quickly disabuse them of such silly notions?

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